- Immediacy (i.e. how close the group is to you in space and time during the influence attempt).

- Number (i.e. how many people are in the group).

The social impact theory predicts that conformity will increase as:

Strength and immediacy increase.The number of people in the group increases — up to a point.

Only four or five people are generally needed, but this can depend on the kind of social influence.

We can resist inappropriate normative social influence by:

- Becoming aware of what social norms are operating.

- Finding an ally who thinks the way we do.

- Gathering idiosyncrasy credits; the credits a person earns over time by conforming to the norms of a group in the past.

Minority Influence

occurs when a minority of group members influences the behaviour or beliefs of the majority.

- In order to influence a majority, minority group members must present their views consistently.

- Minorities influence majorities via informational social influence

Three effective compliance techniques are introduced as:

1 - The door-in-the-face technique

2 - The foot-in-the-door technique

3 - Lowballing

The reciprocity norm

if someone does something nice for use, we are likely to reciprocate by doing something nice for them.

The reciprocity norm is appealed to in the door-in-the-face because when we back down from an extreme request for a smaller one, we feel as though the requester is doing us a favour by trying to meet us half-way. We then feel obliged to return the favour.

Milgram’s classic studies (1974) of obedience showed:

- 62.5% of participants obeyed to deliver the 450v shock, the maximum amount.

- 80% continued giving the shocks, even after they heard the receiver of shock was screaming: “Let me out of here! My heart’s bothering me.”

Why was MIlgrim's study successful?

Informational social influence.

From the perspective of Milgram’s participants the experimenter was an expert and the situation was:

- Ambiguous

- Unfamiliar

- Upsetting

Normative social influence.

- Normative pressures made it difficult for people to refuse to continue with the study.

- Participants were afraid that the experimenter would be disappointed, hurt, or even angry if they quit.

Other reasons that may explain why people acted so inhumanely in Milgram’s experiments are:

Conflicting norms, which in turn may lead to conforming to the wrong norm.

Self justification: once the participants delivered the first shock, they felt pressure to continue.

People conform because of the social situation, not because they are aggressive or inhuman.